Archaeology Dig Sites - New Dig Sites and Updated Table
Patch 4.0.6 increased the amount of dig sites in-game and made the farming of Tol'vir artifacts a little easier! A couple of Nerubian dig sites have also been added in Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend.

Tol'vir Sites added in 4.0.6 (Uldum)

River Delta Digsite

Cursed Landing Digsite

Keset Pass Digsite

Akhenet Fields Digsite

Obelisk of the Stars Digsite

Sahket Wastes Digsite

Schnottz's Landing

Nerubian Sites added in 4.0.6 (Northrend)

Pit of Fiends Digsite (Icecrown)

Sands of Nasam (Borean Tundra)

Nerubian Sites added in 4.0.6 (Eastern Plaguelands)

Terrorweb Tunnel Digsit

Plaguewood Digsite

The new Archaeology spawn rates are as follow, thanks to Simca for that wonderful table:

Races

Eastern Kingdoms (Pre-450)

Eastern Kingdoms (Post-450)

Kalimdor (Pre-450)

Kalimdor (Post-450)

Outland

Northrend

Dwarf

28.57%

32.73%

2.08%

1.45%

N/A

N/A

Fossil

26.53%

23.64%

27.08%

18.84%

N/A

N/A

Night Elf

4.08%

3.64%

62.50%

50.72%

N/A

13.79%

Troll

40.82%

36.36%

8.33%

5.80%

N/A

17.24%

Draenei

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

53.57%

N/A

Orc

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

46.43%

N/A

Nerubian

N/A

3.64%

N/A

N/A

N/A

24.14%

Vrykul

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

44.83%

Tol'vir

N/A

N/A

N/A

23.19%

N/A

N/A

"New" changes!

Originally Posted by Bashiok
(Blue Tracker)

I found an old notebook in a box and so I wanted to share some changes we're expecting to come through.

In patch 1.10 we're going to make it so that when you're at level cap completing quests will turn XP into gold. So that should be a good change, there will still be a reason to complete quests at max level. We're also going to update some items. In BRD almost all items are going to become blue quality, so that should be a nice upgrade for people. Also all bracers, belts, and gloves will be BoE. Which should help get more people geared up through the AH to tackle this difficult dungeon.

We'll keep you updated should we find any other old notes that are no longer new or exciting.

[...] To expand on Bashiok's feedback, we'd also like to note that we're happy right now with priests feeling unique via their racial abilities. It's compelling gameplay for dwarf priests to get to keep Fear Ward to themselves.

These are some good changes, but can we get a better way to manage keys? I hate having to cripple my inventory space by making room for keys, there should really be a keychain or keyring of some kind...
We like the physical nature of holding keys in your bags and bank. That said we are trying to reduce the number of keys given by attunements and required to enter dungeons and the like. In the future we hope that keys will be mostly temporary items, although that is subject to change. We're also trying to keep better tabs on the number of equippable items we're creating that dual-purpose as keys.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Item Level Requirements in Instances
The item level requirement was added to help players better gauge whether or not they might be ready to take on that content. We were seeing a lot of issues before where people were upset that someone was in a group that just didn't have the gear to take on the encounters. Or conversely they (personally) were upset that they didn't seem to be able to overcome an instance despite thinking they were ready for it. So, we've sort of baked in a system to better identify "readiness". It's merely a tool to indicate possible preparedness, not an indicator of skill or lack of skill.

We've mentioned it before, but it doesn't hurt to repeat, that we have been putting some thought into easing the requirement for premade or guild groups in the dungeon finder since those groups may want to help carry a lesser geared player through the encounter and generally have better overall coordination for achieving the completion of the dungeon. (Source)

Low level balance
The designers are actually actively looking over some of the lower level balance to try to ensure that those who either actively play those brackets or level up through them are having a good, balanced time. Most of the changes made were to serve the questing experience and introduction of abilities to new players, but certainly there's a possibility for some changes to be made and still keep that goal. (Source)

Heroic gear should drop randomly!
That's kind of the point of ... points (justice/valor). Even if you're not getting what you want you're eventually getting what you want. More or less. You'd also be blowing out drop tables to a pretty insane degree. Not too bad for a game like Diablo. Pretty bad for a game like WoW.

Also that system of allowing any boss to drop any item in Diablo II really encouraged some very bad forms of gameplay. It devolved into doing 'runs' of the easiest or most efficient bosses. Not exactly interesting. It's something we're actively trying to avoid repeating with Diablo III, and not something we'd want to encourage in World of Warcraft. (Source)

Bug - Treants sharing the same texture
The issue where all treant models share the same texture (including Withers and the Teldrassil Sproutling) is something we're aware of and we're hoping to resolve soon. (Source)

White Talbuk "bug" in 4.0.6
Correct! We discovered that the wrong texture had been applied to the White War Talbuks horns n hooves, but since we liked it, and you guys liked it, and it felt like a good fit for the art design in Outland, we decided to keep it.

[...] As it happens, you'll get to enjoy the new textures for a bit longer. Since this issue isn't something that can be hotfixed, we currently expect the talbuk to return to its former state with a future patch. (Source)

Everyone who joined late-TBC or Wrath should really take a look at the patch change-log (even just the main topics each major patch) to realise how far the game has come. Back when quest items didn't sparkle, when there were no minimap icons for quest-givers or the like, when pets didn't scale at all, when group buffs were learnt from random world book drops, when the debuff limit on all mobs (including raid bosses) was eight, when blessings only lasted 5 minutes...

Everyone who joined late-TBC or Wrath should really take a look at the patch change-log (even just the main topics each major patch) to realise how far the game has come. Back when quest items didn't sparkle, when there were no minimap icons for quest-givers or the like, when pets didn't scale at all, when group buffs were learnt from random world book drops, when the debuff limit on all mobs (including raid bosses) was eight, when blessings only lasted 5 minutes...

People really forget.

Don't use Rend, Thunderclap or Demo Shout, the warlocks needs their dots.

By the way, there is a thread here on MMO-Champion which listed nearly 300 of the changes made to the game. It was an awesome nostalgia thread because it wasnt describing it using rose-tinted glasses. It listed every single thing that SUCKED and were changed for the better.

I really hope they do look at low level pvp brackets. Do you know how hard it is to pvp as a warrior when you get snared constantly? Or how hard it is to be a caster when you're silenced most of the time?

Hmmm Tol'Vir artifacts still spawn in Uldum (only). How's that going to affect the annoying problem of diging aroudn the world while you wait for Uldum digsites pop up?

how it helps is that when there are more Tol'vir Digsites overall, theres more chance of one popping up, the fact that you can make a little gold from grey items was good enough for me to try and get my recipe again but with more chances for tol'vir digsites its like making archaeology a proper profession not like ...... Fishing /Cower

"In patch 1.10 we're going to make.."
what is patch 1.10 ? 4.1.0 or what

Well, as stated in the Box it is an old patch note he found on his laptop. Man i wish all those cry babies that mourn constantly about upcoming patches today would read those old notes. In present time every patch brings a huge overhaul of classes, instances, items, professions and back then "BRD dropps now blue items wohooo" can you imagine a near end content Instance dropping only greens?

I think the next patch should be something like: "Increased the critter respawn rate, so people can get their achievement faster" nothing else!